What is Research?

Here’s a true story:

A student was taking an Art History class in college, and he wrote a paper in which he misquoted some expert in the field of Impressionism. When he got the paper back, the professor had written in the margin near the quotation, “I think you have misrepresented what so-and-so said. He actually feels…” And then, after his explanation, the professor wrote, “I should know— he’s my brother-in-law.”

The point: There is a community of scholars, experts in various academic fields, and they make their living writing about, analyzing, academic subjects. They know each other, they all have different biases and approaches, some are more well-regarded than others, and everyone in a particular field of study pretty much reads what everyone else in that field has written. Whether we are assigned a lab report, a literary research paper, an oral presentation, or a political cartoon, it is necessary to read what these experts have to say and, at times, quote them directly, because what they have to say often helps support whatever point we are trying to make.

When you complete a research assignment, you are part of that community. You are joining a never-ending conversation about the subject you are exploring. This is why, when you write, you need to consider your audience the community of scholars who might be interested in reading your commentary. Just like in a real conversation, you need to have paid attention to the prior comments, and it should be evident that you have done so. You wouldn’t participate in a conversation in which you didn’t know the subject, or what the last several people have said. If you did, people wouldn’t want to talk to you anymore.

Research sometimes looks different in different disciplines, and indeed the objectives of a research assignment in an English class may vary from those of an assignment in a science class. This is owing to the very different nature of these subjects, though, and not to some inherent inconsistency in what research is. When you get to the core of any research assignment, you are really engaging in the same processes: asking questions, investigating, drawing conclusions. Below are some ideas about research from the perspective of three different academic subjects.